"If [metaphysicians] want to put forth their occupation not as science, but as an art of beneficial persuasions accommodated to general common sense, then they cannot justly be barred from this trade. They will then use the modest language of reasonable belief, they will acknowledge that it is not allowed them even once to guess, let alone to know, something about that which lies beyond the boundaries of all possible experience, but only to assume something about it (not for speculative use, for they must renounce that, but solely for practical use), as is possible and even indispensable for the guidance of the understanding and will in life."

sure, manny.... i hear you loud and clear...

Never will the 'I love it/ I like it/ It's okay...' rating system be less helpful than with this book. But it is okay as a helping hand for Kant's first Critique. Where the ideas are most compelling, this book is clearest; where the ideas are the least compelling, this book is dense and nonsensical (hello, tables of judgment/concepts/principles). Anyway, it's silly to rate this book. This edition, on the other hand, is great: it has a fantastic introduction, useful selections from the first critique, and the early reviews of the CPR that Kant responds to in the appendix to the Prolegomena. The translation could be smoother, but then, Kant could have been smoother too.

It sucks, but I think the best track is to read the CPR first, and then this, or maybe this, then CPR, then this again. I can't really see that you'd get much out of the Prolegomena alone. ( )

9

10